The Jewish General Hospital’s (JGH) Herzl Family Practice Centre is the newest “super clinic” in the Montreal area.
Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette was at the Côte-des-Neiges Road facility, next to the JGH, on Feb. 23, for the inauguration.
It’s the ninth super clinic in the city and the 26th in the province.
As a result, Herzl has extended its hours to seven days a week, from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
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Medical services are offered without an appointment and Herzl is equipped to provide blood tests, medical imaging – such as radiology and ultrasounds – and other diagnostic procedures.
The super clinics are aimed mainly at people who do not have a family doctor and are intended to ease the burden on overcrowded emergency rooms in the province.
Herzl will see some of the patients who show up at the JGH’s ER, but are deemed to be in need of less urgent care.
According to a recent government report, the occupancy rate in the JGH’s ER is above capacity, at 138 per cent.
In 2014, Barrette promised to open 50 super clinics in the province by this year. He said that he is confident that target can by reached before the end of the Liberal government’s mandate in October.
Barrette said that congestion in hospital ERs is already improving in areas in which the super clinics are located.
Herzl, which has been a walk-in clinic for a number of years, currently does about 35,00 consultations a year. It is expected that with the increased hours of operation, an additional 20,000 patients will be seen on a yearly basis.
This marks the latest chapter in the more than 100-year history of Herzl, which was one of Canada’s first free medical clinics. It began as a makeshift dockside dispensary serving newly arrived Jewish immigrants and the city’s poor.
Today, Herzl serves a very diverse population and has been recognized for its innovative multidisciplinary model of preventive medicine and compassionate care.
